"Ash, I know you said they have a huge sense of competition, but isn't this taking it a bit too far?" May asked as the ground rumbled for the fiftieth time that day.
Ash shrugged. "Hey, we battle around here all the time. Why should we stop them?" He drank a sip of his soda.
A huge explosion was heard from the other room. The two were currently sitting in the dining area of the Pokemon Center.
"That didn't sound good." May mumbled as both got up and ran to see what had happened.
Some medical equipment had blown up in the emergency room. Nurse Joy and a bunch of pokemon were attempting to put out the flames.
"Go! Ducklett!" Ash shouted, throwing Ducklett's pokeball. "Ducklett, I need you to help put out the flames. Use Rain Dance!"
An inside rainstorm was formed and succeeded in dousing the flames.
"Thank you." Nurse Joy said. "I don't know what's going on. Unova usually doesn't have quakes like this, much less so many in a row."
Ash winced guiltily.
May responded to Nurse Joy for him. "It's very unusual. Maybe the legendries are having a tournament or something."
Nurse Joy laughed. "Yeah right. Although that would explain it."
The ground shook again. Ash left the room. May gave some other suggestions to Nurse Joy as to why this was happening before going to find her friend.
"Ash? Ash, where'd you go?" May said.
Ash came out from an alleyway nearby. "I talked to them. They refuse to stop until they've determined a winner."
May groaned. "Did you explain the consequences their actions are having on the people down here?"
"Yep. They basically said to suck it up." Ash replied. "They have three more rounds, and they've destroyed half of the Hall of Origin."
"Three more rounds?"
"Seven more battles."
"How long is each battle?"
"Several hours at best."
"You've got to be kidding me. Isn't there anything else we can do?"
"Do you have any suggestions? I tried to talk them out of it. They listened and then returned to their battling."
"How long do you think it will take for them to finish?"
"About three or four more days."
"Ash, you're supposed to have the gym tournament tomorrow. What if it's canceled?"
"I hope it's not. It would be more fun with this going on."
"Not for everyone."
"They can just stand on their hover boards to get away from the tremors. If the legendries tell me to suck it up, they'd probably tell everyone that."
"It's going to cause trouble."
"Hasn't it already? I tried, May. If they won't listen to me, they won't listen to anybody."
"Not even me, Mana?"
"Not even you, Manaphy, although that's worth a try."
Ash left with Manaphy for a few minutes before returning to report that they still wouldn't stop.
Both kids sat down on a nearby bench with groans of frustration.
"Maybe if someone ran between the attacks…" May began.
"Not going to happen." Ash interrupted. "I've tried that before and had to face the consequences."
"Things are different now. It's not like you're going to die by running in between the attacks. Someone else, maybe. You? Not likely." May pointed out. "Come on. You're not the type to just give up."
"I've given up before."
"When?"
"When I was trying to commit suicide a couple centuries ago."
"That's different."
"Is it?"
"Just try it, Ash. It might actually have an effect on them."
"Fine, but you're coming with me."
"Pardon? I think I misheard…"
"You heard me correctly. You're coming with me."
"Are you sure that's okay with them?"
"Doesn't matter. If they won't listen to me, I don't care what they have to say either."
May sighed. "Let's hope we can get back before dark. Otherwise, Nurse Joy will question us about where we've been."
"Come on. We have to go out of sight first." Ash led her into the alleyway and pulled out a beautiful instrument.
"What's that?" May asked.
"Azure Flute. Our ticket to the Hall of Origin. Whatever you want to call it." Ash said. He started playing and a white marble staircase appeared on the wall of the alleyway.
"Is that…" May began.
Ash answered her question by taking her hand and leading her into the wall, which seemed to have disappeared in light of the staircase. Once inside, Ash played the flute again and the alleyway disappeared behind them. He then put the flute away and started up the steps.
May looked around in wonder as they ascended the staircase. Ash seemed completely unaffected, probably due to the number of times he had climbed it.
They arrived at the top of the staircase and fell down due to the strength of the tremors.
"This is where we pull out our hover boards and hop on them." Ash said as he picked himself up, activated his hover board, and got on top of it.
May followed his actions, getting on her hover board as well.
They flew into the Hall of Origin. Ash stopped May behind the gathered legendries.
"Stay here. Don't come out unless I say you can or I don't get up for five minutes. Got it?" He said.
May nodded and watched as Ash deactivated his hover board and struggled to balance on the constantly quaking floor.
He winked at her before hurrying towards the battlefield.
The battlers, currently Arceus and Dialga, stopped their attacks upon seeing him, settling for annoyed glares.
"Why won't you listen to me?! You've got to stop! There are probably people who have died down there!" Ash shouted.
Fourteen legendries roared back at him. "NOT UNTIL WE HAVE A WINNER!"
Both Ash and May winced at the loudness.
May noticed Ash had that look on his face that he got when he had a crazy idea.
"If you want a winner, then do a free-for-all, last-one-standing-wins battle, but get it done fast so that we can get this over with." Ash suggested.
May and Manaphy looked at him in horror.
"Mama, did he just say a free-for-all battle where the last one standing wins?" Manaphy asked, hoping it had misheard.
"That's exactly what he said, Manaphy." May said. "What could he be thinking?!"
The legendries that hadn't been eliminated yet roared in approval, while the ones who had been eliminated fled the Hall of Origin.
"And now they're going to do it, aren't they?" May murmured.
"You have two minutes to get out of the Hall of Origin before we start." Arceus announced.
Ash nodded, ran over, grabbed May and Manaphy, and led them down the staircase.
They had just emerged in the alleyway when the worst quake so far shook the region.
"Take cover!" Ash shouted to her as he ran to find somewhere to get out of the way.
May found her own place and jumped in there with Manaphy.
It was barely five minutes before the quake stopped.
May emerged from her cover to see a lot of small-scale destruction. What worried her most was the fact that the ground was tilted and people were struggling not to slide off the edge of the city.
"Bad idea. Bad idea." Ash mumbled as he struggled to get to May.
"You think?!" May nearly shouted at him.
"At least it's over. I'm going to see what I can do to help rebuild." Ash replied, reactivating his hover board.
Soon, everyone fell down as something seemed to lift up the ground.
May breathed a sigh of relief as she realized the ground was even again.
A thought struck her as Ash returned. "Hey. How come we felt the tremors up here anyways? Aren't we floating?"
"The support systems are on the ground. When they shake, the city shakes." Ash replied, kneeling and pulling out some sort of device and some bandages. May noticed for the first time that a piece of glass had stuck itself just above her right ankle. "Hang tight. This is going to hurt."
May muffled a scream as he pulled out the glass. He then tied the device to the wound with bandages.
"Wh-what is that thing?" May asked as she nearly fell to the ground.
"Portable Healing Mechanism or PHM for short." Ash said as he caught and steadied the girl. "The time it takes for it to work depends on the injury. I suspect it will be done in about 38 minutes."
"Just 38 minutes?" May gasped.
"Are you forgetting what year it is?" Ash raised an eyebrow.
"I know what year it is! I'm just surprised, that's all!" May replied.
"Okay." Ash shrugged.
He sat May down to wait for her injury to heal before pulling out some more PHMs and searching for others who were injured nearby.
"How does he have so many of those?" May wondered, not expecting an answer.
"Mana. He likes to help out any who are injured after his battles with criminals." Manaphy informed her.
May looked at the little legendary in surprise. "Oh. I suppose that makes sense."
"You know, that's quite a rare pokemon you have there, Miss." May turned, startled, as she heard a male voice that wasn't Ash's. Three tall, muscular men stood near her. The one nearest her spoke again. "Care to hand it over?"
"No way." May growled. One of the men slugged her in the face before she could fight back. "Ow!"
"Mama!" Manaphy cried.
"Manaphy!" May jumped to her feet, but quickly fell down again due to her injury. "Manaphy!"
Ash, some distance away, heard her shouting and ran back to the alleyway. He found the girl fighting off three powerful pokemon at once with her Blaziken.
"Tyranitar, Hyper Beam!" One of the men cried.
Sensing what the man was planning, Ash ran towards May.
"Blaziken, dodge!" May ordered.
"Just what I wanted you to do." The man sneered.
"Huh?" May was confused until she realized the Hyper Beam was headed right at her.
Ash got to her just in time to shove her out of the way and take the attack himself.
He was blasted into the wall by the force of the attack, but got up rather quickly, albeit dizzily.
"How?!" The men yelped in unison.
"You made a mistake messing with my friend." Ash said angrily. "Lucario! I need your help!"
Lucario growled at the men holding Manaphy as he emerged.
They backed up slightly, unnerved by the power radiating off him.
"Grab Manaphy!" Ash commanded. "Then, use Tackle to get rid of them!"
Lucario obeyed and sent the three thugs flying after retrieving Manaphy from them.
"Nicely done, Lucario." Ash said, rubbing him between the ears. "Thanks for your help."
"My pleasure." Lucario replied, handing Manaphy back to May.
"Yes, thanks, Lucario." May said, hugging Manaphy close.
Lucario nodded to her as Ash returned him to his pokeball.
"Let's get some food. I'm starving!" Ash said cheerfully.
"Ash! Now's not the time to be thinking about food!" May scolded. Her stomach growled and Ash smirked at her. "Okay, so I'm a little hungry too… It's been a long day."
"Thought so!" Ash said, taking off towards the Pokemon Center.
"Ash! Wait up!" May cried as she ran after him, not noticing that her injury was mostly healed.
"Slowpoke!" Ash called over his shoulder.
May rolled her eyes. "How mature…"
…..
(A/n) So I finally updated! Been having some trouble with this one! I know it's a quick read, but at least it's something! Sorry it took so long! Hope you enjoyed! (A/n)